Loan Deferment

Benedictine University participates in the National Student Clearinghouse, Located in Herndon, Virginia. Several times each academic term, the university submits a report of students’ enrollment status to the Clearinghouse which, in turn, supplies verifications of enrollment to loan servicing agencies.

We, along with most loan servicing organizations, participate in the Clearinghouse’s paperless deferment process. With this process, no paper forms need to be completed by either students or schools- the student simply calls his or her servicer to request a deferment. The servicer then posts a deferment to the student’s account after the student’s verbal order is matched against the Clearinghouse electronic data verifying in-school (at least half time) status. A list of participating loan servicers is provided at: www.studentclearinghouse.org/gls/lenders_servicers.htm.

If your lender does not participate in this process and needs a deferment form completed, bring the form to our Enrollment Services Office (or email a signed an scanned copy to BenCentral@ben.edu). Our department forwards all deferment forms to the Clearinghouse. They will confirm your enrollment has been sent to your lender. Benedictine University does not provide this information directly to the lending agencies. If you registered late or had an exception processed to your term registration, this information may not be reported until our next Clearinghouse submission.

Please note, loan deferment is based on enrollment in classes. It is NOT based on graduation, taking an incomplete in a class, leave of absence from one’s program, nor pending the completion or defense of a masters/ doctoral thesis. Deferment eligibility stops when classes conclude or the day that a student drops below half-time student status.

If you receive a collection letter from a servicer, you should:

Call your lending agency to see if they received a deferment from the Clearinghouse after they sent you the collection letter.

If after calling you servicer it still appears that your deferment was not processed, call the Clearinghouse at 703-721-4200. A Clearinghouse representative can verify the date they received the deferment form, when the deferment was certified, when your enrollment status was certified, and to which servicers your deferrable status was reported.

If an emergency exists (e.g. you are being threatened with default), the Clearinghouse can intervene on your behalf by faxing another enrollment certification to your servicer. Further, it will work with you servicer to ensure that the form is processed on a high-priority basis.